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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26780194">Motherly Advice</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainDeryn/pseuds/CaptainDeryn'>CaptainDeryn</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Deryn's Fictober 2020--Through the Pages [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Lord of the Rings Online</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Fictober 2020, Gen, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Prompt Fic, Short One Shot, positive mother daughter relationship</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 05:01:22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>950</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26780194</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainDeryn/pseuds/CaptainDeryn</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Fictober 2020 Day 2: Faewryn goes to her mother for advice as her ideals and perspectives on the world start to develop. Wulfwryn does her best to give positive motherly advice, but its hard when your child seems so much more wizened than you.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Deryn's Fictober 2020--Through the Pages [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1952452</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Motherly Advice</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Day 2: “That’s the easy part”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Of all the conversations Wulfwryn was least prepared for, she hadn’t expected it to be one of morality and service. Not that Wulfwryn considered herself prepared for any of the difficult discussions that came with parenthood. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Trying to explain why Faewryn couldn’t sleep with </span>
  <em>
    <span>ammë </span>
  </em>
  <span>and </span>
  <em>
    <span>atar </span>
  </em>
  <span>one night when she had been but a wee little toddler had been hard enough. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Let alone when Faewryn came to her, asking about standing up to people telling her that believing most people were kind and good and that she wanted to devote herself to helping them was too idealistic. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She was almost guiltily certain her eyes had gone blank for a moment before she had been able to answer. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Wulfwryn was speaking off the cuff, saying things as they came to mind and hoping they were the right ones. It was proving to be far more work and much less eloquent than she would like. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Coming up with those--that’s the easy part.” Wulfwryn said. Catching her daughter’s expression fall, she gave a slight smile and amendment to her words. “Those grand ideas are still important, but it’s sticking to them that is the true test.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Faewryn frowned, her eyes narrowing thoughtfully. They were swimming with the question of what her mother had just suggested, trying to decide if her ideas for help and positivity were to be abandoned. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I thought that would be the easy part.” she said slowly. “That sticking to your ideals would be easy but finding ones you feel strongly enough about is hard.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her mother leaned back, humming as she considered this new point. Her daughter was wiser than Wulfwryn had ever been at her age, put far more thought into the workings of life than she had. At her age, Wulfwryn had been more concerned with roughing and tumbling around in the dirt and pouring blood, sweat, and tears into forging her own sword. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Finally she sighed. “I suppose there really is no ‘easy’ part when you think about it.” she looked over at Faewryn.</span>
</p><p>
  <span> “But I do believe it is much harder to stand by what you believe in when you see what goes into defending them. Swords and shields clashing make it harder to stay convinced that what you are doing is the right thing.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m not using a sword and shield.” If anything had come from Wulfwryn, it was the bluntness that coated Faewryn’s response. “I’m not fighting a war.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Oh, if only Wulfwryn had Raenor’s ability to spin fancy words together into inspiring sentences. Faewryn had a point: she wasn’t fighting a war. She may not need to watch her ideas cascade into waterfalls of blood and gore on the battlefield or crumble with each falling wall in a siege.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Wulfwryn desperately hoped the worst opposition Faewryn would have to face would be someone telling her they didn’t agree. The thought of her daughter facing the sorts of tragedies like the War of the Ring or what Raenor had seen at the fall of Edhelion kept her up at night and chilled her to the bone. Just thinking of it now made a shiver go through her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Breaking herself from those thoughts she gave Faewryn a light nudge to the shoulder, “Your father would’ve been much better to have this kind of conversation with. He’s the philosophical one.” </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>And the better one with words</span>
  </em>
  <span>. She thought to herself. Already this conversation seemed to be tanking worse than the rotted out fishing boats that sometimes sank in the harbor. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But </span>
  <em>
    <span>ammë,</span>
  </em>
  <span>” Faewryn argued. “You’ve got the strongest ideals I know. You must know how not to question them.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her daughter seemed taken aback at the laugh that escaped Wulfwryn in a sharp bark. Still laughing, Wulfwryn held up a hand. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m sorry my darling, I’m not laughing at you, I promise.” she reigned herself back in, smiling. “It’s just that I didn’t know what I thought of the war until I was already a guard for Gondor’s last steward. And I questioned my values each and every time they hit a block.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Faewryn’s hands were working, her fingers knotting together then untangling and repeating all over again--a sign that she was thinking hard. She looked up at Wulfwryn, eyes round. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So I </span>
  <em>
    <span>don’t </span>
  </em>
  <span>need to have everything figured out now?” she asked. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Wulfwryn’s eyes widened at the thought. If she still functioned under the same ideas she had when she was a teenager then who knows how many more people she would have angered or how many times over she would be dead!</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No,” she assured quickly. “You absolutely do not need to have that figured out. You’re going to learn more as you get older. Trust me.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Smiling brightly, the worry melted off of Faewryn’s expression. Untangling her fingers, she threw her arms around her mother. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I do trust you </span>
  <em>
    <span>ammë</span>
  </em>
  <span>!” she said warmly. “That’s why I came to you in the first place.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Wulfwryn wrapped an arm around her daughter in turn, giving an amused shake of her head. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She teased, “Giving me gray hairs thinking about all that big important stuff is what you did.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Peering at Wulfwryn’s hair, Faewryn pursed her lips. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Liar,” she said. “You don’t have any gray hairs.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her innocent look didn’t falter in the slightest when Wulfwryn made a face at her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not yet.” Wulfwryn said. “They take awhile to appear.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The two stared at each other for a long moment before dissolving into laughter. </span>
</p><p>Silently Wulfwryn gave a sigh of relief. One more conversation did not end in flames...it had come close, but she felt confident she had salvaged at least a bit of it. </p>
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